By Jordan Burton (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Chris Comerford hadn’t had a typical Chris Comerford night.
Lockwood kept Sarcoxie’s All-Everything quarterback in check most of the night, holding him out of the end zone for the game’s first 44 minutes, forging a 22-15 dogfight.
And then, Comerford showed why he’s the reigning SRVC Offensive Player of the Year, ripping off a 22-yard touchdown run that proved to be the dagger in a pivotal in Sarcoxie’s 36-15 win over Lockwood Friday night.
Photos: Sarcoxie vs. Lockwood – CLICK HERE
The score isn’t indicative of just how close the game was; Friday was the first time all season Sarcoxie trailed in the second half.
“I’m so proud of our kids; Lockwood is a great team with a lot of tradition,” said Sarcoxie head coach Russell Ellis. “We hadn’t been in this situation since early in the season but we made some adjustments she our kids just gritted it out and finished. We made plays when we needed to.”
Lockwood keyed on Comerford, forcing him to give the football up and it worked for the first three and a half quarters. Head coach Luke Rader isn’t a stranger to just how good Comerford is after being the head coach at Sarcoxie for five years.
“Chris is a tremendous athlete and football player, so we wanted to take him away and force someone else to beat us,” said Rader. “But even when you try to take him away he’s still good enough to make plays. We wanted to contain him as much as possible.”
It was nip-and-tuck throughout the night but the momentum had its first major swing late in the first half.
Sarcoxie junior Christian Garrison snagged a fumble out of midair and rumbled inside the 15. Three plays later he punched it in for his second score of the game.
Lockwood thought it had an answer when Paxton Masterson hit Jack Purinton on a 45-yard strike, but illegal touching negated the score and sent Sarcoxie into the intermission with a 14-7 lead.
“That was a huge play in the game,” said Ellis. “We had struggled and had some unfortunate things happen offensively so for him to grab that and have a return that gave us a short field was big.”
Lockwood scored on its first possession of the second half, a short jump ball from Masterson to standout receiver Logan Sparkman.
A two-point conversion gave Lockwood a 15-14 lead, but Sarcoxie’s defense held them scoreless for the game’s final 21 minutes.
Lockwood didn’t have a single snap on Sarcoxie’s side of the field, which is a testament to the strength of a defense that hasn’t allowed more than two scores in a single game all season.
“We told them early on that Lockwood was going to get yards but that we just needed to keep fighting and swinging the hammer. These are experienced kids and they bent, but didn’t break. Coach Gordon did an outstanding job calling our defense and putting kids in position to make plays.”
Lockwood has now dropped back-to-back regular season games for the first time since 2013. However, the Tigers two losses – Pierce City and Sarcoxie – are both undefeated and appear to be on a collision course for a Week 9 showdown that will decide the fate of the SRVC and potentially the No. 1 seed in the district.
The Bears haven’t won the SRVC in program history, but understand they’re just two games away from making that dream a reality.
“We had two opportunities to get a share of the conference title last year, but we let it slip through our fingers,” said Ellis. “We want to put ourselves in position to be playing for a championship at home on the last Friday of the regular season.
“We’re going to enjoy this win because of how big it is for our program, but we also have to understand that we played sloppy and have to be ready to work next week.”
Sarcoxie 36, Lockwood 15
Sarcoxie 7-7-8-14 – 36
Lockwood 7-0-8-0 – 15
